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It is 6:12 a.m. on Saturday morning and I lie in bed waiting to get up listening to my audiobook. I am doing this because I can, I have waited all week for this luxury. This is the usual time my alarm goes off, so I am accustomed to being awake at this time and usually popping out of bed and getting my day started. Waiting to get up is truly a blessing and an opportunity to give waiting some value. I am also awake so early, without the alarm actually going off, because last night I did not wait to go to bed. I was in bed before the sun was down. My week’s adventures had tuckered me out and as my bed awaits, I toddled toward it earlier instead of later. I was listening to my body last night and it said, “go to bed” and I listened. Do you listen?
As I listen to my audiobook, I also notice my toes and my feet and my legs. I stretch my feet and flex my ankles, while feeling the stretch in my calves. I wait to see if there is any soreness or something I should feel or hear. Ramping up the running for my August challenge my body is taking stock of how achy it will be. I feel the muscles moving in my thighs. The largest and most powerful set of muscles in the body are the quadricep muscles. They carry me when I walk, run, or hike and when I take the stairs in the buildings where I work. I am thankful for my legs and feet. I feel and I am aware of my trunk. All the organs and muscles in the core of the body.
As I wait to get up and appreciate the movement, all these parts deserve thanks. The core strength in our lives comes from the core strength of our body. This core or centre holds all the organs and working parts that digest food, move the blood and the air. I wait and give thanks for the good working order. This core also houses the spiritual centre, the heart chakra, the swirling centre of my being deep in the chest of my existence. I wait and give thanks for my soul’s journey. I stretch my arms, bend at the wrist, and wiggle my fingers. I roll my eyes in my head and scrunch up my face. I am thankful for my awareness to stop and wait before I bound out of bed, just because I can. This week I had a discussion with a client who suffered a stroke five years ago. He cannot bound out of bed. He is waiting for the care providers to come and get him ready for the day. We talked about how much we take for granted when we can simply get up out of bed.
Joy fills my heart on this leisurely Saturday morning where I can choose to have a “lie-in” as the children’s British Nana used to call it. I wait in bed because I can, because I can choose to, and because, waiting in this instance is wonderful and is a source of enlightenment. Waiting is a state of mind and how we use it is what gives it value. It can be mindful or mindless, useful, or useless, constructive or destructive, helpful or depressing. When we wait it depends on the purpose as to whether it is helpful or not. This morning my waiting is to cherish my body, and for that I am rewarded with gratefulness.
The perfect recipe for an unfulfilled life and dissatisfaction with one’s journey is waiting for anything that is future paced. Large scale waiting and wishful thinking are often bedfellows. Waiting to win the lottery or get a raise. Waiting for the kids to grow up. Waiting to get married, leave home or have a baby. Waiting to change jobs or change your mind. Waiting for something better to come along. Waiting to be happy. When you wait for something to come from the future you may wait a long time.
Waiting can be used in a positive way. Like when we wait to do something foolish or reckless. When we wait, take pause, it can save us from years of suffering and guilt. Waiting instead of saying hurtful things in the heat of the moment. Waiting on an elderly loved one to process a thought. Waiting on a four-year-old to figure out how to put a block in the hole the right way. Waiting can provide a moment to watch and to cherish or waiting can bring joy like lying in bed until 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
Waiting can give us the chance to see, plan and feel. Standing in the grocery store, waiting in line, can offer us a moment to calm ourselves and maybe wonder why we are in such a hurry all the time. Brings attention to how waiting a few minutes in the grocery line is so stressful. Why is that so? Usually because we are in a hurry to get someplace other than where we are. Cruising down the 400 at 80 kms an hour may feel like we are waiting for traffic yet, when put in perspective going 80 kms an hour on a two-lane Ontario highway is top speed. These moments of waiting can be the greatest gift in our day.
Eckhart Tolle says, “it is not uncommon for people to waste their whole life waiting!” What are you waiting for? Where in your life are you stalled thinking you are waiting for something? Waiting is a state of mind in which you can waste much time swimming around aimlessly from wait to wait. Waiting for life to get better instead of taking action to make it better. Waiting for something to give before you tend to it. Waiting to love your life instead of living it in love. Maybe ask yourself, “what am I waiting for?” and when you have cause to stop and wait, cherish that wait and look at it. Observe the waiting and take a deep breath while doing so. Listen to your heart while you wait, you may be amazed at what you hear.
As I scanned my body waiting to get up on Saturday morning, I thought about how I have let go of yesterday and embrace the new day. It is here, this new day, and I await no more. Today is here to be lived and loved and memories to be made. What are you waiting for? Jump out of bed, with hope, optimism and passion in your heart knowing today is the day you have been waiting for. Whether the sun is shining or, behind the clouds, it is still there in the sky and for that we are thankful. Never wait for it to come out to shine light on your day. Waiting is a state of mind and how we use it is what gives it value. I am no longer a lady-in-waiting! Whoo-hoo!
Cynthia Breadner is a grief specialist and bereavement counsellor, a soul care worker and offers specialized care in Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy with special attention as a cognitive behavioral therapy practitioner and trauma incident resolution facilitator. She volunteers at hospice, works as a LTC chaplain and is a death doula, assisting with end-of-life care for client and family. She is the mother part of the #DanCynAdventures duo and practices fitness, health and wellness. She is available remotely by safe and secure video connections, if you have any questions contact her today! [email protected] breakingstibah.com
